Pac-10 commissioner says he has no animosity after Texas declines invitation

Laura Skelding/APUniversity of Texas president William Powers Jr. speaks at a news conference Tuesday about the university's decision not to join the Pac-10.

NEW YORK -- Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott tells The Associated Press he has no animosity toward Texas for declining an invitation to join his league.

Scott said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he never felt he had a done deal with Texas and the four other Big 12 schools he was trying to add to the Pac-10. The conference would have become a 16-team league had Texas joined with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Texas A&M.

Instead, those schools decided to stay in the Big 12.

Scott says when the news came down that Texas and the rest were not joining Pac-10, he called Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe to congratulate him for saving his conference.

The Pac-10 landed one Big 12 school in Colorado. Nebraska left the Big 12 for the Big Ten.